My Kitchen Clatter

Real Food - Real Life

Butternut Squash Risotto with Balsamic Vinegar

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If you haven’t made risotto in the pressure cooker, then you are missing out. Risotto is fairly labor intensive if you do it on the stovetop – involves a lot of time and stirring. I’m not opposed to labor in the kitchen, but recipes that tie me down to a spot are the ones that I’m most likely to blow. But risotto is a whole different world in the pressure cooker. You basically add everything to the cooker, bring to high pressure for six minutes and it’s done. If you have an electric pressure cooker with a risotto setting, then it’s even easier – push a button and all the work is done for you. I love this recipe for butternut squash risotto – it is very simple, traditional, and delicious.

This recipe for butternut squash risotto with balsamic vinegar is one of my very favorite risottos. It is great on it’s own, but it also makes a great base recipe to take in different directions. If I want to add protein to the risotto, I prepare my chicken, sausage or pancetta (my favorite) ahead of time and add in to the finished risotto at the end. This is a great way to use up leftovers.

In spring when the asparagus is tender, I love to add some thin spears at the end with the cheese and butter. Close the lid for three minutes after the pressure is off and the asparagus will be crisp tender when you open up to serve.

You can also mess around with the cheese – parmesan and asiago are always safe bets, but you can play around with blue cheese or even swiss.

This recipe is even easier if you have pureed squash or pumpkin in your freezer. But, if you don’t have a freezer full of squash like I do, I include directions for pressure cooking your butternut squash. Still pretty darn easy. And it’s always a good trick to be able to cook a squash in minutes.

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Butternut Squash Risotto with Balsamic
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Serves: 4
 
I'm keeping the garnish really simple for this risotto. Use a high quality balsamic vinegar and you won't go wrong. You want one that is thick to the point that it pours like a syrup. It makes all the difference when you aren't hiding it behind other ingredients.
Ingredients
  • 1 small butternut squash - or 1 cup of butternut squash puree
  • 4 cups of chicken stock, low sodium
  • 2 T extra virgin olive oil - garlic flavored is awesome, if you have it
  • 3 shallots, chopped
  • 2 cloves of garlic (not necessary if using garlic flavored EVOO)
  • 1 T chopped fresh sage
  • 2 cups Arborio rice
  • ¼ c dry white wine
  • 1 T unsalted butter
  • salt and black pepper, to taste
  • ½ cup grated Asiago cheese, divided
  • For garnish:
  • high quality balsamic vinegar
Instructions
  1. If using a whole butternut squash, cut the squash in half and clean out the seeds. Place in pressure cooker (on a rack, if you have one) with 1½ cups of water (or the minimum amount of water necessary to bring your cooker to pressure) and bring to high pressure for 6 minutes. Release pressure naturally and poke the squash with a fork through the skin - if the fork pushes through with no resistance, the squash is done. Scoop squash out of skin and puree in a blender or using a stick blender until it is smooth. Reserve 1 cup of puree for this recipe and freeze remaining puree for future use - it will also keep in the fridge about 5 days.
  2. Heat olive oil in the bottom of a stovetop pressure cooker over medium heat - or in an electric cooker set to brown or sauté. Add shallots and sautée until soft, about 3 minutes. Add garlic cloves (if using) and chopped sage and sauté another 30 seconds until fragrant. Add Arborio rice and stir until rice grains are coated in oil and the tips start to turn transparent - about 3 minutes.
  3. Add the wine and stir until the wine has been absorbed. Add chicken broth and squash and stir. Close and lock lid of pressure cooker. Set pressure cooker to high and cook for 6 minutes on high. If your electric pressure cooker has a risotto setting - use it. Release pressure using a quick release method. Open lid, add butter salt and pepper to taste and ¼ cup of cheese, stir and replace lid for 3 minutes. The risotto will seem a bit wet - don't worry. Remove lid after 3 minutes, stir again and check your consistency. The rice should be creamy and al dente.
  4. Serve in bowls and drizzle with balsamic vinegar and top with remaining cheese.

 

Homemade Play Dough

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Finish product!

Finish product!

Homemade play dough is one of the few places that I still use white flour. No whole wheat play dough around here!

Anyway, we love this recipe. I can whip up a batch in a few minutes and my kids will sit at the counter and play happily for a few minutes while I work on dinner. I used to keep the play dough in the We keep it in a bag with the play dough toys and it

And don’t let the cream of tartar stop you from making this recipe. The cream of tarter helps give a nice smooth consistency and also helps a bit with shelf life. But if you don’t have any cream of tartar around, you can skip the cream of tartar.

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Homemade Play Dough
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Ingredients
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 cup of warm water
  • ⅓ cup of salt
  • 1 T oil
  • 2 t cream of tarter
  • food coloring
Instructions
  1. Combine all ingredients in a medium sized saucepan over medium low heat.
  2. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon until it forms a ball around the spoon.
  3. Take off of heat and place dough on the counter.
  4. When dough is cool enough to handle knead the dough a few times until it is smooth.

 

Sourdough English Muffins

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Sourdough English Muffins

A fresh batch of sourdough English muffins

I believe that these Sourdough English Muffins are reason enough to maintain a jar of sourdough starter in your fridge. They are not super difficult to make, but they do take a little bit of time and love. But they are so delicious and so much healthier for you than the store bought version. Once you get spoiled with homemade breads, it really gets hard to go back to the mass produced stuff.

Sourdough English Muffins

Sourdough Starter

Like most sourdough recipes, you’ll need to do a little planning for these muffins. You’ll make your dough the night before and it should rest in the fridge overnight (8-12 hours). Make sure you put the dough in the fridge during the rest period. If you leave it on the counter, they won’t have any rise left in them for baking and you’ll end up with hockey pucks. And along that line, be sure to use instant yeast in your recipe. I use SAF red instant yeast – it has a different lifespan that the normal quick rise yeast that you typically find in the grocery store. the quick rise will die off by the time your long rise is over and you’ll end up with the hockey puck problem again.

In the morning, you pull the dough out of the fridge, shape your muffins, and “bake” them off. You could also start the process in the morning and finish off that evening – but you’d loose the beauty of fresh English muffins for breakfast. And, really, what’s the point of that?

Once you pull the muffins out of the fridge, I divide the dough into muffin sized portion. The engineer in me always weighs each portion to make sure they are all about the same size. Normal people probably don’t do this. But, I find that 1.7 ounces of dough makes a nice, small muffin that is still big enough to hold an egg sandwich. 2 ounces is a medium sized muffin and 2.3 ounces would be a monster size around our house. When I do 1.7 ounce portions, I usually end up with about 2 and half dozen muffins. Once I have the dough portioned out, I shape them into flat rounds. This is one of the best parts of the recipe. There is just something about handling a nice bread dough. Place the rounds onto a parchment lined baking sheet. You can sprinkle course ground corn meal or semolina on the parchment so you have a little crunch to your final muffin. It is a nice touch, but my corn meal usually ends up burning on the cast iron skillet. I guess its a little give and take that way.

Sourdough English Muffins

Muffins cooking on stovetop

And speaking of baking, English muffins aren’t really baked. They are cooked on the stovetop – kind of like tortillas. I cook mine on a cast iron skillet. They will puff up as they hit the heat and it’s a pretty fun thing for the kids (and grownups) to watch. Sometimes mine brown too quickly and aren’t quite done in the centers. If that happens you, can finish them off in  a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes until the centers reach 190 degrees. I don’t really ever stress about the centers being done. I usually end up splitting most of the muffins and freezing them. When I’m ready to eat the muffins, I toast them – so the centers get finished that way.

As written, this recipe for English Muffins does not rely entirely on the sourdough to give the rise to the muffins. It is kind of a cheater recipe for sourdough. Which makes it a great recipe for anyone who is just starting out with sourdough and is working at gaining confidence in their skills. If you want to convert it to 100% sourdough, then you should 1) make sure your starter is fed and active and 2) eliminate the instant yeast and optional citric acid.

I hope you enjoy these sourdough English muffins!

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Sourdough English Muffins
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Serves: 30 muffins
 
As with all things whole wheat, if you aren't using freshly milled whole wheat flour, you can substitute a high quality store a combination of ½ store bought white whole wheat flour and white flour, but your final product will be slightly different than mine in taste, texture, and nutrition.
Ingredients
  • 2 T sugar
  • 1 cup warm water (110-115 degree F)
  • 1 cup warm milk
  • 1 T instant yeast (optional if you are using active, fed sourdough starter)
  • 1 c sourdough starter, fed or unfed; fed will give you a more vigorous rise
  • 7-8 cups white whole wheat flour - freshly milled flour strongly recommended!
  • ¼ c (4 T) butter, at room temperature
  • 1 T salt
  • ¼ t citric acid (optional, for added sour flavor)
  • semolina or course corn meal, for coating
Instructions
  1. Combine all ingredients, except, flour and semolina, in the bowl of a stand mixer.
  2. Add flour until dough is soft and at the right consistency for kneading. If using a Bosch universal, you should add flour until the dough just cleans the sides of the bowl. If using an Ankarsrum the dough should pull from the sides of the bowl and form a donut around the kneading arm. The dough can be a little sticky - it will continue to absorb moisture as it rises.
  3. Knead using the mixer for 6-12 minutes (Bosch or Ankarsrum mixers will need 6 minutes while other mixers may need 12 or more minutes) until the dough is smooth and slightly tacky.
  4. Oil dough, place in bowl and cover with plastic wrap or lid. Refrigerate over night or 8-12 hours.
  5. About 1-2 hours before you are ready to make muffins, take dough out of fridge and let come to room temperature. This step can be skipped, if you don't have time.
  6. Portion dough out for muffins (1.7-2.3 ounces, depending on size preference) and shape into flat rounds.
  7. Warm cast iron skillet on stovetop to a low or medium low setting.
  8. Rest muffins on a cookie pan coated with course ground semolina.
  9. Cook muffins in pan about 5 minutes each side until dark brown. Internal temperature should be 190 degrees. If the muffins brown before being done, they can be finished in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes on a baking sheet.
  10. Split using a fork. Extra muffins freeze perfectly and are perfect for toasting for breakfast.

 

Homemade Laundry Soap

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Posting about soap and cleaning is not my normal sort of recipe. But I do love my homemade laundry soap. I’m sure that many of you think I’m nuts for all of the things that I make instead of buy. With regards to homemade laundry soap, my main motivation is that I don’t like to waste money or resources. With four boys in our house, I do a lot of laundry. And the store bought detergent for a family of six, adds up quickly – even when you buy the cheap stuff. Then consider all of the plastic containers that liquid detergent comes in.

Our friends, Kevin and Lori, introduced me to this recipe years ago, and I’ve never looked back. I think it cleans just as well as the liquid stuff that I used to use. If you research homemade laundry soap recipes, you’ll find that recipes fall into two categories – powder and liquid. I use a powdered version, mainly because it is easier to make and store. I have also read that the Borax is activated by water, so it loses some of its potency when you make a liquid laundry soap.

I grate my soap pretty fine and then run it through the food processor using the sharp blade. Add a bit of the Borax and/or washing soda with the soap in the food processor and you’ll produce a fine powder. I’ve found that if I don’t get it very fine, some of the soap may not dissolve in cold water. Not a huge issue, just annoying to find little white specks of soap on your black shirt. The food processor fixes that issue.

When making this recipe, you can use pretty much any bar of soap. I am currently using Ivory soap, but have used Fels Naptha and Kirks Castile in the past. Kirks Castile has an unscented version, but it is pricey and difficult to find. Thus, Ivory. I find my Borax and washing soda at Farm & Fleet. Borax is pretty easy to find in most big box stores. Washing soda is not as easy to locate. But Farm & Fleet has it. Ah! Farm & Fleet. Anyway, I digress. Wherever you go, both will be in the laundry isle. Both are sold in large boxes. And washing soda is not the same as baking soda. Same sort of orange packaging – different product.

And finally, because someone will ask – I do not have a HE washing machine. I understand that you can use this recipe in your HE machine, because it produces very low suds.

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Homemade Laundry Soap
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Make sure to grate the soap into a fine powder. I use the grater attachment on my food processor to grate the soap and then the sharp blade to mix the Borax and washing soda with the soap into a fine powder
Ingredients
  • 1 bar of soap - Ivory, Fels Naptha, or Kirks Castile are good starting points
  • 1 cup of washing soda (not baking soda)
  • 1 cup of Borax
Instructions
  1. Fine grate the soap. I use my food processor's grate attachment.
  2. Combine all the ingredients. I combine in my food processor with the sharp blade and pulse until the soap is a fine powder.
  3. Wash your food processor!
  4. This recipe can be multiplied. Four bars of soap and four cups of washing soda and Borax will last our family of six about 6 weeks.
  5. Store in containers. I used 1 T to a large load of laundry. 2 T for extra dirty laundry.

 

Oatmeal Waffles

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Oatmeal WafflesThis waffle is our family favorite and I’m not quite sure what has taken me so long to post it here. It’s probably that I don’t have any good photos of the waffles. But I’m trying to move beyond my meager photographic skills and still share this recipe.

This is what happens when you let your seven year old make the waffles.

This is what happens when you let your seven year old make the waffles.

We’ve been making these waffles since Jim and I got married. The recipe originally came from my mom and dad, but I’ve made very few tweaks to it over the years. We got our first waffle maker as a wedding present from Jim’s Aunt Terry and Uncle George. That first one lasted us about 10 years and I loved the deep wells that it made in the waffles. We’ve since moved on to a waffle iron that we found at Williams Sonoma, but our requirement for a nice big Belgium waffle is still met. We will never have any of those wimpy, soggy little waffles around here!

These waffles are hearty – definitely not light and fluffy. They are chewy and yummy. One will fill most people up and give enough energy to run until noon. My kids top them with syrup, but I like mine with some apple butter, toasted pecans and whipped cream. Enjoy them as you wish.

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Oatmeal Waffles
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Recipe type: Breakfast
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Serves: 8 waffles
 
This is a chewy, filling waffle. Whole grain goodness at it's best.
Ingredients
  • 1½ cups of whole wheat flour, freshly milled is best
  • 1 cup of oatmeal, I used thick rolled
  • 2 T brown sugar
  • 1 T baking powder
  • 1 t cinnamon
  • ½ t salt
  • 1½ cups of whole milk, sour milk, milk kiefer, or whey
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 T coconut oil or butter, melted
Instructions
  1. Preheat your waffle iron.
  2. Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl - flour through salt.
  3. Combine milk and eggs in a small bowl.
  4. Add milk and egg mixture and oil to the dry ingredients and stir just until combined.
  5. When iron is hot, spoon batter into the iron and cook until desired doneness.
  6. Top with maple syrup, butter, pumpkin butter, nuts, whipped cream or strawberries as your heart desires.

 

Whole Wheat Crackers

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Whole Grain Crackers

I feel I should start this recipe description with a warning – these crackers are addictive! Now we can move on.

Crackers are one of the few foods that we still buy in packaged form. The man loves Wheat Thins and even though I rarely buy them for him, I will occasionally find boxes in the pantry after I’ve sent him to the store for other things. And to be honest, Wheat Thins are not all that bad as far as processed foods go – there are not many ingredients and I can pronounce all of them.

But I have this desire to be able to bake things myself instead of having to buy them. If you need a box of crackers at the last minute, it often seems like it should be easier and quicker to whip some up instead of heading out to the store. And crackers really don’t seem like they should be that hard. And they aren’t – but I have had a difficult time finding a good recipe. I’ve tried several different recipes over the last year or so and I basically gave up looking because nothing was as good, quick or easy as the boxed ones. But I was recently inspired to try some new recipes and this time I’m pretty sure I hit the cracker jack pot.

The recipe itself is super simple – basic ingredients that you’ll probably have on hand.

You can play with the flours you use in these crackers

You can play with the flours you use in these crackers

If you know me, then you can probably guess that I’ve been making these crackers with freshly ground whole grain wheat flour. I’ve been playing with different heritage wheat varieties such as Einkorn, and I’ve also played with subbing some buckwheat flour for the wheat flour. The buckwheat made the crackers a little chewier that the all wheat version. If you aren’t milling your own flour and don’t have any on hand, this recipe will also work with a good store bought whole wheat or white flour.

Your dough should be sticky.

Your dough should be sticky.

When you mix up the dough, it should be sticky. Just be generous in flouring your dough as you roll it out.

I like a few seeds on my crackers. For my favorite seed mix, I combine equal amounts of caraway seeds, garlic powder, onion powder, poppy seeds, and sesame seeds in a little jar and then sprinkle away. This mix is one I use on bagels and dinner rolls. You could really use any seed, herb or finely ground nuts as the topping – have fun with it. To get the seeds to stick, I rolled the dough out just a tiny bit thicker than I want it at the end. Then I sprinkle the seeds on and finish rolling the dough out. This way you won’t have seeds everywhere in your kitchen except where you want them.

Using your rolling pin, lightly roll the seeds onto the crackers.

Using your rolling pin, lightly roll the seeds onto the crackers.

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Whole Wheat Crackers
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These simple crackers are amazingly tasty. Roll them really thin for a super crispy treat or a little thicker if you like your crackers a little chewy.
Ingredients
  • 3 cups of whole grain wheat flour
  • 2 t sugar
  • 2 t salt
  • 4 T olive oil
  • 1 cup water
  • topping, optional
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 450 and place the rack in the lower ⅓ of the oven.
  2. Combine flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl.
  3. Stir oil and water into dry ingredients. The dough will be soft and slightly sticky.
  4. Divide the dough into halves. Cover one half with a clean towel.
  5. Pat the other half into a rectangle and place onto a floured surface.
  6. Roll the dough out into a rectangle about ⅛" thickness or thinner. Add flour as necessary to control stickiness.
  7. Sprinkle the topping evenly over the dough and gently roll the topping into the dough.
  8. Using a sharp knife or a pizza cutter, cut the dough into 1-inch x 2-inch crackers - or whatever shape you fancy.
  9. Poke each cracker with a fork and line up onto an oiled cookie sheet. Place the crackers as close as possible, they won't spread.
  10. Bake 12-15 minutes, one sheet at a time. Check at 12 minutes for desired doneness. If some crackers bake quicker than others (because they are thinner or in the center of the pan) you can pull them off and bake the remainder a few minutes longer.
  11. Repeat with remaining dough.

 

Ham Bone and Bean Soup

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If you were to ask me, I would tell you that the best part about a ham is the bone. Our local meat market stopped carrying bone-in hams a couple of years ago, so I was forced to find a new meat market. I can’t even comprehend how they “make” hams without the bones. Seems a little funny to me.

But anyway, that ham bone is great because it make an awesome soup. I sometimes think of it as free food – take something that you might have thrown away, add a couple cheap veggies, and you end up with a  very healthy and easy soup.

To make traditional ham bone soup, you simmer it the ham bone in a pot of water all day long and eventually you end up with a great stock for a bean soup. The little bits of meat loosen up while it’s simmering and it makes the perfect soup for a cold winter day.

This year, I decided there was no need to simmer all day long. Save energy, save time, all that good stuff. So, I modified my ham bone and bean soup recipe for the pressure cooker. Perfect!

The only trick to this recipe is a little thinking ahead on the beans. The night (or morning) before you make the soup, take a couple cups of beans and cover them with 2-3 inches of cold water in a big pot. 8-12 hours later, drain the beans and you are ready for the soup. I usually soak extra beans, drain them and freeze them in two cup portions – ready to go in a recipe that calls for soaked beans and no planning required. If you are in a time crunch, you can also do a quick soak of your beans.

You can make this recipe with any bean you like. I love it with cannellini, but a bag of mixed beans (sometimes called a 15-bean soup mix) is great also. Have fun with it!

Here’s the recipe. Hope you enjoy.

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Ham Bone & Bean Soup
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Recipe type: Soup
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Serves: 8-10
 
Don't throw away that ham bone! Here's my favorite recipe for a leftover ham bone. Remember to pre-soak your beans. This is made in a pressure cooker, but could be easily modified for stovetop. Also, there should be no need to add salt to this recipe because of the ham bone.
Ingredients
  • 1 cooked ham bone, with meat left on
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 1 T olive oil
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 16 ounces of beans, soaked - any kind will do, but cannellini or mixed soup beans are a good start
  • 2 cups of chopped carrots
  • 2 cups of chopped celery
  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Instructions
  1. Heat the olive oil in a 6 quart or larger pressure cooker, sauté the onion until translucent - not brown. Add the ham bone, bay leaf and 8 cups of water. Lock lid and bring cooker to high pressure for 25 minutes.
  2. Quick release pressure and add remaining ingredients. This is a big soup - do not fill cooker past the ⅔ line. Lock lid and return cooker to high pressure for 6-12 minutes, depending on your bean. Smaller beans like black beans will be 6 minutes, larger beans like cannellini will be 10-12 minutes.
  3. Release pressure naturally and remove lid.
  4. Remove ham bone. While ham bone is cooling, keep soup at a simmer. If you like a creamier soup, you can use a spoon to mush some of the beans up in it.
  5. When the bone is cool enough to handle, tear off the bits of ham still attached and return the ham to the soup.
  6. Serve with a crusty bread and enjoy!

 

 

How to Grind Cardamom from Pods

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Cardamom Pods

Cardamom Pods

I like to buy cardamom pods and then grind it once in a while as I need it. This has two big advantages over buying pre-ground cardamom – it’s fresher tasting and less expensive. Plus I think the pods have a longer shelf life than the ground stuff.

My girlfriends and I did a little food tour in an Indian neighborhood of Chicago last summer and I picked up a big bag of cardamom pods for a couple dollars. Ridiculously cheap. If you don’t have a local Indian grocery store, you can get bulk cardamom pods through places like Mountain Rose Herbs, also. My 8 ounce bag is probably enough to last most people a lifetime – but I love cardamom in my baking. The pods are also great for make chai tea and tossing in Indian curry. Just look for green cardamom – I’ve accidently purchases black cardamom before and the flavor is completely different. The green ones are what we normally use in baking and other recipes.

The major problem with cardamom pods is getting at the little seeds inside the pods. You can cut each individual pods open and scrape out the seeds – but it takes forever. After getting frustrated with my lack of progress of getting at the seeds, I did a little internet searching and found an approach that said to buzz the pods in a coffee grinder and then pick out the pod pieces.  This works. But it is difficult and time consuming to pick out the pod pieces. Especially if you buzz them too long in the grinder.

Cardamom pods after a couple pulses in the spice grinder

Cardamom pods after a couple pulses in the spice grinder

This is what mine looked like after a couple pulses in the coffee grinder.  I should note that you could do this also in a mortar and pestle. But can you imagine picking out all of those pod pieces? Here is how I got around it. I emptied the coffee grinder into a small bowl. And I took that bowl plus and extra bowl and headed outside. We had a nice windy day today, so I was helped along by the wind, and I simply held one bowl above the other and poured the seeds between the bowls. The wind picked up the little bits of the pods and blew them away, leaving me with the seeds and a few larger bits of pod. By this point, it was super easy to pick out the bigger pieces of pod and I was left with the seeds.

Cardamom Seeds

Cardamom Seeds

Then I just spun the seeds in the coffee grinder (again – you can use a mortar and pestle) until I had them ground as fine as I wanted.  And to be honest, I didn’t spin it long enough this time around. I still had larger bits of seed in my cardamom bread that I would have liked. So spin that coffee grinder a little longer than you think you need. I like to grind extra and keep it in a little jar so I don’t have to go through this process every time I want ground cardamom. But it will still be lots fresher than what you can buy in the store.

I hope this saves you some time and trouble in grinding your cardamom!

 

Ground Cardamom

Ground Cardamom

Dinner Rolls DIY

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Shaping the dinner rolls was always my kitchen task as a kids. My mom would give me the bread dough and tell me to go at it. But honestly, I never got beyond knots and round rolls. Now, there is nothing wrong with those shapes, but sometimes you want to mix it up a little for the bread basket. So, here are some of my favorite shapes to make, along with some ideas on toppings.

Once you have the rolls made, you can bake right away or you can do what I do – freeze them. I shape them onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. As soon as I have the rolls shaped, I pop them into the freezer for 30-60 minutes until they are frozen solid. Then I put them into a freezer bag and keep frozen until I need them. A couple of hours before baking, pull out the number of rolls you want and let rest on a parchment lined baking sheet. Preheat the oven to 350 and bake for 15-20 minutes until they are golden brown. You can do this with one to 100 rolls at a time and it’s a great way to enjoy a little warm bread with dinner without all of the work.

And one more tip before we get started, instead of making a batch of dough just for rolls, you can use any extra dough from bread baking and turn it into rolls. Freeze them and soon enough you’ll have enough for the family dinner.

Double Knot

Double Knotted Roll

Double Knotted Roll

This is my favorite shape to do. Just take your piece of dough, roll it into a long snake and start knotting the dough. I like to run the ends through the center a couple times – I like the extra little pull apart bits to the roll.  Then tuck the ends under. The only downside to this shape, is it takes some time. If you are in a hurry, see the braided roll below.

Once your rolls are shaped, you can oil the tops and add any toppings you like. My favorite topping mix is equal parts salt, poppy seed, caraway seed, garlic powder, and onion granules.

 

Braided “Knots”

This is a quick and easy way to get rolls shaped. Take three equal size pieces of dough and roll them into long snakes. Braid the dough and then cut pieces off to form rolls. You can try to shape it gently into a ball and tuck the ends under. You’ll end up with a mixture of different size pieces and some ends will end up sticking out. Sometimes its nice to have some variation in the rolls, but if you want everything looking the same, this might not be the roll for you.

Braided rolls

Step #1 – Braided rolls

Step #2 - Braided Rolls

Step #2 – Braided Rolls

Step #3 - Final Braided Rolls

Step #3 – Final Braided Rolls

Croissant Rolls

Step #1 - Croissant Rolls

Step #1 – Croissant Rolls

This is a classic shape that is really nice for a buttery roll. Take a piece of dough and roll into a flat circle. If you want, you can oil or butter the dough at this point and add shredded cheese (parmesan or asiago are nice), garlic, or any other seeds or seasonings you like. Cut the dough like a pie and roll up the pieces from the long end. Tuck the edges around to form a little curve to the croissant and you are done.

Done! Croissant Rolls

Done! Croissant Rolls

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Those are some of my favorite shapes. I’ll keep adding more to this page as I get some more photos together. If you have a favorite shape that I’ve missed, please comment below!

Homemade Pumpkin Puree

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Homemade Pumpkin Puree

Sugar PumpkinSo don’t let the title of this post fool you. I usually make my “pumpkin” puree from a combination of sugar pie pumpkin, butternut squash, hubbard squash, or kubocha squash – pretty much any squash that the farmer’s at the market tell me will work. Why do I do this? Partially because of availability and quantity – some of these squashes (like the hubbard) are HUGE and will make a ton of puree. Some of these squashes are also lots cheaper than pie pumpkins. But it also helps to mix up the flavors and textures. A butternut is lots sweeter than pumpkin, but it is very wet. The hubbard is also really sweet, but it is comparatively dry. So when I mix a bunch of them together, I end up with an amazingly sweet puree that is not too wet or too dry. Do you ever want to eat pumpkin puree out of can? Me neither, but when I make homemade puree, I often find myself licking the spoon and the bowl – it’s so good. And isn’t that really what we want to be baking and cooking with?

  • Cut squash in half and clean out seeds.
  • Save those seeds! Sort them from the flesh. I like to soak mine in cold water for 1-12 hours. I guess this helps to get the sprouting process started which can help increase nutrition and digestibility – whether or not that’s true, I think they taste better soaked. Drain, rinse, toss with olive oil and salt. Roast in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes until toasted. You can mix up your seasonings also – try cumin, chili powder, cinnamon and a little sugar or even a curry seasoning.
  • Back to the squash – I’m going to give you two methods to cook it. In my opinion, they both end up tasting the same. Pressure cooking saves time and energy, but may not work if you are trying to do a huge batch.
    • To roast in oven – Place squash, cut side down on rimmed baking pan. Add ½ cup of water and roast in 400 degree oven for 45-60 minutes until it is pierced easily with fork and starts to slump. Cool until it can be handled.
    • To pressure cook – add 1 cup of water to pressure cooker. Cut squash into pieces and place into pressure cooker. Lock lid and bring to high pressure. Cook for 6 minutes. Release pressure naturally.
  • Once squash is cool enough to handle, use a spoon to scrape out the flesh into a big bowl. I usually taste a little bit of each squash to make sure it tastes sweet. You can also taste the raw squash, if you are into raw squash. If it doesn’t taste good (and you’ll know it), then toss it. I know that hurts, but it’s better now than later when you’ve made an awesome lasagna with not so great squash puree.
  • In small batches, puree the flesh in a food processor or blender until smooth.
  • You can use the puree immediately, refrigerate for up to 5 days, or freeze. I usually freeze in 2 cup portions (same amount as a small can of pumpkin). Bags of frozen pumpkin puree can be thawed overnight in the fridge, or more quickly by submerging the bag in hot water for 15-30 minutes.

Use this puree in pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bundt cake, butternut squash lasagna, pumpkin chili, pumpkin butter, and butternut squash soup.  Yes, I know I should post my recipes for all of these great things. I’ll get to it. And then I’ll have a blog of entirely pumpkin things. Not the worst thing in the world, I know. If you have any great ideas for using pumpkin puree, please leave a comment below. I’d love to hear your ideas.

 

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